Recently, flat display devices, such as an LCD (liquid crystal display), a PDA (plasma display panel) or an OLED (organic light emitting diode), have been increasingly developed instead of conventional CRTs (cathode ray tubes).
Among them, the LCD includes a liquid crystal display panel having a thin film transistor substrate, a color filter substrate and a liquid crystal injected between the thin film transistor substrate and the color filter substrate. Since the liquid crystal display panel is a non-emissive device, a backlight unit is provided below the thin film transistor substrate to supply light. Transmittance of the light emitted from the backlight unit is adjusted according to the alignment state of the liquid crystal.
The backlight unit is classified into an edge-illumination type backlight unit and a direct-illumination type backlight unit according to the position of a light source. According to the edge-illumination type backlight unit, the light source is located at a lateral side of a light guide plate.
The direct-illumination type backlight unit has been developed as the size of the LCD has become enlarged. According to the direct-illumination type backlight unit, at least one light source is located below the liquid crystal display panel to supply the light over the whole area of the liquid crystal display panel.
When comparing with the edge-illumination type backlight unit, the direct-illumination type backlight unit can employ a large number of light sources so that the high brightness can be achieved. In contrast, the direct-illumination type backlight unit must have thickness larger than thickness of the edge-illumination type backlight unit in order to ensure brightness uniformity.
In order to solve the above problem, a quantum dot bar having a plurality of quantum dots, which can convert blue light into red light or green light, is positioned in front of a blue LED that emits the blue light. Thus, as the blue light is irradiated onto the quantum dot bar, the blue light, the red light and the green light are mixed with each other by the quantum dots distributed in the quantum dot bar and the mixed light is incident into the light guide plate, so that white light is generated.
If the white light is supplied to the light guide plate by using the quantum dot bar, high color reproduction may be realized.
The backlight unit may include an FPCB (flexible printed circuit board) provided at one side of the blue LED, which generates blue light, to supply signals and power to the LED and a bonding member formed under the bottom surface of the FPCB.
The display device capable of displaying various images using the white light supplied to the light guide plate through the quantum dot bar as the blue light is emitted from the blue LED has been extensively used.
The display device employing the quantum dots is disclosed in Korean Unexamined Patent Publication No. 10-2011-0068110.